Make the Web do your work

July 15, 1998
Web posted at: 10:00 AM EDT

by Ken Fermoyle

(IDG) -- The smartest thing I've done since launching my
publishing and editing service is to take on a silent
partner.

It's called the Internet.

It lets me spend less time on the piddling,
time-consuming tasks involved in running my
business -- like applying for a loan or a business license,
shopping for office supplies, and sending overnight
packages -- so I can devote more time to making
money.

Using Web-based services to help with these
small-business equivalents of stoop labor frees time I
once spent away from the office or on the phone. I can
focus instead on the writing and publishing projects
that bring in the bucks at my three-person editorial
services business.

The Web will never fully replace real-world business
resources and human interaction, but it has already
become indispensable to my business.

Getting Loans: Show Me the Money

All small businesses need money. Getting it used to
mean trekking to banks and finance companies, filling
out endless forms, and supplicating flint-hearted loan
officers. The process could take weeks, and it was as
much fun as being hit slowly with a brick.

A couple of years ago, I needed a new camera and a
special lens to complete a job for a client -- and I needed
it yesterday. The three banks I approached couldn't
move fast enough with a line of credit, so I wound up at
the local office of a loan company. I got the money
within hours, but the high interest rate ate up a good
share of my gross profit on the project.

It won't happen again: Recently, I needed a $3500 loan
for a new workstation and scanner, so I pointed my
Web browser to Quicken Business CashFinder, Intuit's
comprehensive loan broker site. CashFinder listed ten
participating lenders, from American Express and
Citibank to Union Bank of California (with many more
slated to come aboard by year's end). I applied for the
loan in a three-step process.

First I answered a few questions online, such as how
long I'd been in business, how long at my current
location, and how much money I wanted to borrow.
CashFinder analyzed my responses and within a
minute showed me ten different financing options, from
credit cards to bank loans to equipment leases. Some
lenders had offices near me; for others, the closest
office was online.

CashFinder let me choose up to three of the options
offered. Then it built a custom Windows program
containing all the information I needed to complete the
selected application forms, presenting it in a guided,
fill-in-the-blanks approach. I had no trouble downloading
and installing the software on my PC. Finally, I filled
out, printed, and mailed the loan application. Altogether
I spent less than an hour on the task -- far less time than
it takes to drive to a local bank and wait for an interview
with a loan officer. (Another nice touch: Because you
store the application on your PC, your financial data
remains confidential, rather than parading through the
Internet.) Lenders responded in less than 48 hours--and
yes, I got a line of credit soon after, which I can tap into
for future needs.

Besides its Business CashFinder, Intuit offers two
other great financial sites: Intuit and Quicken.com.
Together, these sites offer the most comprehensive
lineup of financial services I've found on the Web,
thanks to their partnerships with banks, insurance
companies, brokerage firms, and the federal
government. New partners and services appear every
month.

Cutting Through Red Tape

Next to banks, government entities have the highest
IQs--that's Irritation Quotients--for small businesses. If
you have ever tried to get a business license or a copy
of a zoning ordinance or government report, you know it
can take weeks of letter writing, faxing, and
telephoning. I've used the Web to beat the
bureaucracy, but zeroing in on the right government
office online is still a hit-and-miss proposition. Not
every municipality and agency is up to Web speed yet.

For information at the national level, I start with
FedWorld, an indispensable gateway to everything
federal. Run by the U.S. Department of Commerce,
FedWorld provides plenty of ways to pinpoint the
location of data, forms, and advice offered by the feds.
FedWorld lets me quickly plow through multiple
government sites and documents in minutes instead of
months to get the information I need.

For example, when I began gathering data for a
corporate white paper on telephony, FedWorld led me
to an excellent (and free for the downloading) 41-page
Glossary of Telecommunications Terms. This handy
guide helped me cut through the jargon-infested thicket
of new telephony technologies and deregulation rules.
Try getting this glossary by calling the Federal
Communications Commission directly, and see how
many bureaucrats you have to talk to before you're
finally told to look on their Web site.

The all-encompassing White House Web site opens
the gate to nearly every resource the feds have to offer.
It includes Commonly Requested Federal
Services--direct links to information on Social Security,
trademark and copyright issues, taxes, and grants and
government contracts--and the Interactive Citizens'
Handbook, a virtual-links switchboard for finding the
right offices and phone numbers of federal government
branches and agencies.

Another excellent source for targeting the right online
government connections is Government on the Net
(Nolo Press, 1998, $40), a book–and–CD-ROM set with
links to more than 2000 sites related to all levels of
government. The book describes what you'll find at
each site, while the CD-ROM contains live links to get
you there quickly.

In some instances, locating information about a
particular local or regional government body can be
especially difficult. Start your search with Yahoo
Regional: U.S. States, select your state, and follow
links to the specific county or city of interest. I've
tracked down everything from state income tax
schedules to the exact room number in City Hall where
I needed to go to file a form.

You can expect to strike out occasionally. Some
government entities have adapted to the Web better
than others. But when you're successful, it beats being
bounced like a football from department to department
in search of help.

Desperately Seeking Tech Support

In my three-person business, I'm not just CEO, chief
finance officer, and janitor--I'm also the MIS guy, which
means that I spend a lot of time hunting down technical
support on the Web. Sites like those run by Microsoft
and Adobe are full of searchable databases, FAQs, and
the latest drivers and bug fixes. And finding what you
need online is a lot easier and more pleasant than
calling the vendor, getting put on hold, and then
enduring minutes of elevator music before reaching a
corporate minion who may or may not know anything.

Though the Web is useful for getting technical answers,
I often resort to a source of tech support that's
somewhat less frequented but more up-close and
personal: user groups. I've belonged to ten groups over
the past 17 years and received far more assistance
from them than I've paid for in dues.

Recently, for instance, I bought a new motherboard,
CPU, and SDRAM to upgrade one of my computers. I
sent e-mail to two of the hardware gurus in my home
group, soliciting their help in the installation project.
"Bring the system and your new goodies to the next
hardware SIG [special interest group] meeting, and
we'll give you a hand," they replied. I did just that; 2
hours later the upgraded PC was up and running at
warp speed. I couldn't have done that by calling a
vendor support phone line. Most user groups have local
meetings where you can meet and greet fellow
members; others, while still close-knit and helpful,
reside only on chatty Web sites.

To find a user group in your area, I recommend visiting
the Association of PC User Groups. If you want a
general roundup of useful data, try The User Group
Network, which carries a mixed bag of news, product
reviews, and technical information, including a Q&A
posting area, for both PC and Mac users. Delphi
Internet (www.delphi.com), a site made up of various
subject-organized "communities," offers friendly advice
and support for all levels of PC users in a number of
moderated forums. To get started, go to either
www.delphi.com/pccompat (for hardware assistance) or
www.delphi.com/doswin (for Windows help).

Hiring a Virtual Steno Pool

Not so very long ago, if I needed some dictation
transcribed, I hired a temp--or schlepped a tape
cartridge to a transcription service. Now I use a simple
online stenography pool that is available 24 hours a day
and costs less than most traditional services.
CyberTranscriber (Speech Machines, 888/267-9891)
employs a sophisticated speech-recognition system to
take dictation and return it as e-mail.

After registering a password at the CyberTranscriber
site, you receive an account ID. Then you call a toll-free
number, enter your ID, and dictate your golden words
over the phone. It's kludgy, but you can also work from
a PC equipped with microphone and speakers or (even
better) a headset. You can use your telephone's
keypad to play back the dictated material before
submitting it--rewinding and rerecording as needed.

I woke up one night with an idea for a syndicated
monthly column I write. Instead of running downstairs
to a computer in my office, I picked up the bedside
phone, speed-dialed CyberTranscriber, and dictated
some notes. When I checked my e-mail the next
morning, my thoughts were all there, dutifully
transcribed. My wife, who has had surgery for
repetitive-strain problems, appreciates how the system
spares her many long bouts of typing.

Beyond the initial $30 registration fee, you pay a $10
monthly fee that covers four 225-word pages of
transcription; additional pages cost $3.50 each. In
contrast, my local transcription service charges $6 to
$7 per page. CyberTranscriber claims to achieve
verbatim accuracy, keeping correction time extremely
low. My experience? Terrific--almost 100 percent of my
words have been correctly transformed into print; I
attribute the handful of errors to poor pronunciation on
my part. Turnaround time averages less than 3 hours,
with delivery guaranteed no later than the next day.

Finding a Package Deal

The box is sealed and you're ready to ship it to a
customer. If you're like me, you've logged days of
precious time over the years calling shipping
companies, comparing prices, and hunting for the best
deal. But I don't do it anymore. Now I let WorldWide
Merchant's InterShipper figure all the rates for me. I
merely enter my zip code, the destination code, my
package's size and weight, and the type of service
(such as overnight or second-day). InterShipper then
calculates the cost of shipping the package by the
U.S. Postal Service, Federal Express, United Parcel
Service, or some other carrier, complete with a chart
comparing all rates, and links to each shipper's site.

Need to know whether your package arrived safely?
InterShipper's companies provide quick online package
tracking and full information about the other services
they offer. You can go directly to each shipper's Web
site or use InterShipper's links to get there.
Then bookmark the tracking pages of the services you
use most often.

Getting the Goods Online

After buying computer hardware, software, and office
supplies from retail stores or mail-order catalogs for
years, I recently investigated the online alternatives. My
conclusion: Savings are possible, if not always huge,
and ordering online can be convenient--especially if you
need to shop during off-hours. Comparison-shopping
from your desktop also lets you hit the offline stores
knowing exactly what you want and how much you
should pay for it.

Snagging a clerk in a retail store can be harder than
catching the eye of a waiter in a French restaurant.
Online "clerks" (that is, Web pages) are comparatively
easy to find, provide more information than you'll get in
many computer stores, and stay on duty 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. Sites like Computer Discount
Warehouse provide you with detailed apples-to-apples
comparisons of the products they sell. Other sites,
such as Software.net and Egghead.com, let you
download and install new software instantly; to unlock
the display case, you simply supply your credit card
info.

PriceWatch and ComputerESP specialize in
comparison shopping. Type the name of the product
you want, and you'll get back a list of online sites that
sell it, ordered from cheapest to most expensive. For
example, a 3Com Palm III handheld organizer that lists
for $399 in retail stores was available for as little as
$323 on sites noted by ComputerESP.

Of course, the online shopping experience isn't all
peaches and correction fluid. You won't always save
money--but you can find bargains. Office supply giant
Quill consistently has good buys. I recently got ten
reams of 20-pound copier paper for $2 each, and a
remanufactured LaserJet III toner cartridge cost $30
(versus $35 for the same cartridge at a local computer
shop). Quill offers free shipping on most orders above
$45. Office Depot pays for shipping on orders of $50 or
more. The OfficeMax site has competitive prices and
posts SOHO business resource pages and a product
information directory, both containing useful links to
related sites.

How much time you save by shopping online depends
on the old real estate essential: location, location,
location! I live within a 10-minute drive of six computer,
office supply, and electronics superstores, plus several
smaller computer storefronts, so shopping online
doesn't save me much time. For someone who lives far
from such abundance, virtual storefronts are a great
resource.

Real-to-Real

Using the Web as a silent partner is great. But doing
some chores right still requires you to put shoe leather
to pavement or telephone to ear. For instance, although
I rely heavily on e-mail, I find that face-to-face meetings
and phone calls continue to be vital in some situations.

Real-time relationships with real people remain the
foundation of success in conducting and expanding a
business. Using the Web to do the grunt work gives
you more time to get those meetings in--and complete
your real work, too.